Hearing devices are primarily medical aids to compensate for a very wide range of hearing impairments. They are therefore on the one hand an important link for communication, in particular for the perception of ambient noise, by the hearing device wearer. To this end they should allow a largely natural hearing sensation with the highest possible level of convenience for the user and on the other hand they should ensure, regardless of any equipment variants, that at least certain important ambient noises can be perceived in a reliable and classifiable manner by the hearing device wearer.
Increasing convenience requirements are associated with greater complexity and a corresponding energy requirement for modern hearing devices. At the same time, to reduce weight and for aesthetic reasons, every endeavor is made to use the smallest possible energy sources, frequently in the form of batteries, with the result that the energy sources used have a relatively limited capacity. It is therefore desirable, at times when corresponding sound amplification is clearly not necessary, to decouple as many energy-consuming components as possible, in particular the amplifier and signal-processing circuits, from a power supply or to switch off the hearing device as a whole.
It is known that hearing devices can be designed so that corresponding components can detect removal of the hearing device by the patient and in such instances interrupt the power supply automatically and the hearing device is switched off (DE 4410445A1). This procedure excludes the retention of a certain functionality of the hearing device for the hearing device wearer, which can however be ignored, as by removing the hearing device the hearing device wearer has generally decided to dispense with the technical assistance of the hearing device.